


Practiced Hands

by caratkat (ohohomos)



Series: Twenty Days of Waiting [10]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Card Dealer!Mingyu, Casino AU, Genius!Jihoon, M/M, other characters are gamblers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-07-14 17:55:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16045601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohohomos/pseuds/caratkat
Summary: Mingyu met an interesting guy at the casino today.





	Practiced Hands

Kim Mingyu met an interesting guy at the casino today.

Mingyu works as a dealer in the casino owned by his parents. It's for fun, he actually only have a few chances to deal in games; mostly, he just want to bother other employees and talk to the customers.

But that didn't mean Mingyu doesn't like what he's doing. He's been working on his card techniques for as long as he could remember, he also studied the rules of each and every games, and Mingyu tries to learn a thing or two by watching people play in the casino.

Mingyu knew most of their regular clients, so he would notice when a new person showed up. Today, a short kid with blonde hair walked in. Age restrictions applies here, so he went to stop him. How come the security let him in?

“Hey, kid. You're too young to be here.” Mingyu approached the kid, trying to make the remark as gentle as he can. The kid might be imtimidated due to his height, so he bent down a little. The kid glared up at him and looks like he wanted to argue, but immediately restrained himself. He showed Mingyu his ID.

“I'm legal.” He said in a resigned voice. Mingyu read his ID to make sure.

Lee Jihoon. 25 years old.

Mingyu checked the kid again. His hair was shorter in his ID photo, but it's definitely him.

“Oh. You're even older than me.” Mingyu voiced out. The guys shrugged and walked away. Mingyu isn't going to let him go too soon. A new face in the casino meant more to talk about.

“Sorry about that, you really looked younger than your age. So, Ji-" he started but Jihoon stopped him.

“If you're not going to leave me alone, call me Woozi. I don't want strangers knowing my name.” He said. Mingyu immediately agreed. At least he's not avoiding him like a bug like what others have done before.

“Sure! So, Woozi-hyung. What brought you here today? I noticed that you're new here.” Mingyu started. Jihoon seems to be a guy who don't have vices. He actually looked him a serious guy who didn't have fun for the last ten years.

“I'm bored.” Woozi said. Mingyu bombarded him with basic questions like his other hobbies, favorite game, and etc. while the other was busy looking for a game to play. After a while, Woozi seemed to lose his patience with him.

“Look, aren't you going to work? You've been bugging me since I came here.” Woozi asked. Mingyu sheepishly answered.

“Well, to be honest, you're the only one new here. I already knew the other customers and I've been talking to them since, well, Day 1. I'm not required to work here, and since there's no one asking for a card dealer, I'm just wasting time while talking to you.” Mingyu explained. Woozi glared at him, but he really didn't looked scary due to his childlike face.

“Go bother someone else.” he said and walked past Mingyu. However, a laugher was heard from one of the tables for poker games and caught their attention.

“Is Mingyu bothering you? He always does that to new faces. How about a game of baccarat, kid? Mingyu could deal for us, so he won't talk for a while. He's a professional dealer.” A guy who laughed before said. Woozi considers it, and turned to Mingyu.

“How long have you've been doing this?” he asked.

“Since I was a kid! Wait, are you going to play with them? I suggest not.” Mingyu replied and warned Jihoon. Those three could almost be called scammers. They don't cheat, but they've always invited new comers to play with them and they'll let him win once, and will asked for a few more rounds until the new comer was broke.

Still, Jihoon shrugged and went to sit on their table, so Mingyu can't stop him now.

The guys introduced themselves. The guy who laughed was S. Coups, and the other two were Hoshi and DK. Obviously, those were not their real names, but Woozi choosed not to comment since he's also using an alias. After the introductions, Mingyu asked if everyone is ready. Once all agreed, he listed off the rules and such. He looked really professional while doing this. Woozi is a bit impressed.

And so they started. Woozi won the first round, but these were all according to the plan. Mingyu have seen these guys play a hundred times already.

“Let's play again.” Hoshi asked, but Woozi already stood up.

“Sorry, I have to meet up with my friend now.” He said as he excused himself, however, the other three stood up to stop him.

“Hey, you can't just leave and go like that. Its common etiquette.“ DK said with an edge on his voice, his happy-go-ucky smile not present on his face.  Woozi raised an eyebrow at how the three seems to cage him, and glanced at Mingyu's way. Mingyu mouthed ‘I told you so'.

Jihoon's phone rung from his pocket. He fished it out and signalled the other three to wait.

“Oh? Hmmm... I'm still doing something... Can we move the call time? I'll be there after an hour... I'm still here anyway, so I'm going to be late... yeah... okay... see you later.” He looked back and signalled the other three to sit down.

“Two more games. Then I'm out.” He said and the other three agreed. Mingyu sighed.

For the next game, Jihoon only glanced at his cards, he's not even trying to win, but looked at Mingyu very closely that he suddenly felt conscious.

Jihoon lost.

Now on the third game, these guys will bet bigger prices. That's how they'll make the new person bankrupt. But Jihoon looked relaxed, not even an ounce of nervousness was seen. He just kept glancing at his wrist watch, noting the time. 

Fast forward to the last draw. Everyone bets for the player, but Jihoon bet double for the banker. After a few tensed moments, Mingyu opened the cards. Nine to seven, Jihoon won. The other three stared at him in shock. When he saw the results, he smirked and quickly stood up.

“Okay. I'm done. I gotta go.” He said just as his phone started ringing and he excused himself. Mingyu collected his winnings for him and went after him.

“How did you do that?” Mingyu asked him in awe. It was like Jihoon was so sure that he would win. Jihoon didn't answer his phone in favor of talking to Mingyu.

“Do you know how many possible outcomes are there for our game? It's 173,056 for a pair, and 71,991,296 for triad. Seems too many, but I believed in one thing.” Jihoon stopped to get his money and looked at Mingyu.

“What?” he curiously said.

“That you have practiced hands. The decks were newly opened, shuffled, and distributed by you. There would be certain cards that were bound to be together, and the second round proved that.” Jihoon explained. Mingyu didn't know how he came up with the figures and strategy, but he's amazed that Jihoon managed to caught his pattern within 2 rounds. He looked at his hands to examine it when Jihoon placed a card on it.

“You have beautiful hands, Mingyu. Let's see what more they can do.” Jihoon said and left the casino.

On Mingyu's hand lays Jihoon's calling card.

Lee Jihoon.  
CEO. Gaming Genius, Inc.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! See you at #SVTIdealCutinManila!


End file.
